​Disclaimer: Always seek the advice of your physician before starting or altering any exercise or dietary plan.

​We all have the same 24 hours or 1440 minutes in a day, 7 days a week, however you choose to measure it. What we do with that time is a matter of priorities. It is a priority to sleep, and most of us have to work. Then what do we do with the rest of our time? Where do we spend our time? Do we make time to make our health a priority? Most of us do not, and it shows on our waistlines, in our bloodwork and our overall health.

We don’t take time to prepare our meals, we buy processed, prepackaged foods because they are convenient and fast.
We eat at fast food restaurants because we can drive through and get onto the next thing.
We don’t sit down to eat as families because we don’t have time, everyone is busy.
We don’t have time to exercise
We don’t have time to grocery shop
We don’t have time to slow down
You get the picture.
We use “I don’t have time” as one of the biggest excuses that has ever been used. I can guarantee you, you aren’t the only one, it’s my favorite excuse also. We all use it.

If you break your week down, prioritize and figure out where you are spending all your precious time, you will find the time to exchange to do the things you need to do to be healthier and less stressed!
If we want more time on this Earth to enjoy life and be healthy we need to look after ourselves the best that we can, or we will be spending our time in Doctor’s offices, hospital’s, or sitting at home doing nothing because our bodies are sick and deteriorated. Not the way I want to spend my time, and I’m sure you don’t either.

We all have 168 Hours in a week. How do you spend yours? How many hours do you sleep? Work? Commute? Shop? Watch TV? Play on the internet? Exercise? Go to Church? Drive kids around?
Do you have a time blocked out for meal planning? Or meditation? Exercise? Fun? Free time?

Being healthy isn’t just about the food we eat, it’s also about stress levels, our state of mind and our physical health. These “I don’t have time” lifestyles we are leading are killing us like the lives we are leading, fast.

We need to take the time to be healthy, enjoy life.

Some people are very good with time management, some people THINK they are good at it, and some people need to really work on this concept. I know that both Mark and I could both improve greatly with managing our time and not making excuses. We both have time that is just wasted. We tend to call it relaxing lol. I think the term is more like lack of priorities and laziness quite honestly.

​Laura Vanderkam has written an excellent book on Time Management called “168 Hours: You have more time than you think” She is an Author, Writer and Speaker who has hit the proverbial Nail on the Head, in my opinion. You can purchase her book at the bottom of this post (I highly recommend the read) or you can find the Audiobook. She has pages on her website at https://lauravanderkam.com so that you can print off your 168 Hour track sheet.
I personally have read and re read her book and also have the audiobook. Every time I read or listen to it I’m motivated even more to watch what I’m doing with my time and adjust accordingly to fit my life.

​For the next week, we will keep track of our 168 hours. We won’t change anything in our routine, and we will block our time in 15 minute segments, to the best of our abilities.
Then we will see how much time we actually have that could be used in a more constructive way or even just to see where we’re lacking and could improve our use of time. I challenge you to do the same!

Book

Audiobook

After the week is done. Take a look, add up the numbers. How many hours did you sleep? How many hours did you work? Commute? Shop? Spend online? Whatever it is that you do?

I don’t believe that every minute of every day needs to be scheduled, and that you can’t have any down time, or playtime. That’s not the idea of this. That would be too robotic and not real! This is too see where your time is going, and see that you do have the time to add in the healthy exchanges that we are all striving to achieve, and still be able to sit down, relax and enjoy that show we like so much etc. I think you will find it amazing how much time could be spent differently to help remove some of the stress in our lives.

Then the next week we will look at how many hours do you have left? How many hours do you have (or minutes) to take the time to meal plan, cut up veggies, prepare healthy meals? Take a walk, jog or add in a work out? Visit a friend or relative? Watch your favorite show? Have a bubble bath? Spend time on your hobby?

This “Schedule” is not set in stone, I don’t want anyone to stress out trying to follow it. It’s just meant to be a guideline to help you see the potential time you have to exchange in a week for healthier choices with your time.

If we don’t make the time to enjoy life, it will pass us by.

Give us a shout, email us or visit our Facebook page, tell us where you think you could find some time to do the things you need to do to get healthy. Or ask a question if you need help with an exchange that you would like to make and need some ideas. We would love to hear from you.